The McKinnon's Company better known as McKinnon's Raiders or The Fox's Teeth is a Special Operations BattleMech Company. Originally a SLDF combat unit, the company defected to House Davion at the breakup of the League.[1] During the next three hundred years the Raiders became, as an independent part of the 7th Crucis Lancers, one of the most famous commands of the Federated Suns until they chose to join the Republic of the Sphere after the Jihad.[2]

At the beginning of the First Succession War in 2786 McKinnon's Company proved their determination by repelling a much larger force of the DCMS, who tried to seize the Star League Depot. Though victorious, the unit left the planet for a first Tour of Duty on the Periphery border, that would last ten years and was quite uneventful.[1]

However, all that changed in 2796 when McKinnon's Company joined with the newly created 7th Crucis Lancers on Kentares IV to form the First Company of the First Battalion. The defense of Kentares against the Combine invaders did not go well and the 7th Lancers were all but destroyed. The few survivors, led by McKinnon's Company, fled to the mountains and waged a guerrilla war against the DCMS. They were finally rescued by an AFFS task force, however before their retraction an infantryman of McKinnon's troop shot CoordinatorMinoru Kurita. This fateful incident led Minoru's son, Jinjiro, to order the death of Kentares' whole population during the infamous Kentares Massacre. Kieran and his company however fought on against the invaders - again as an independent command after the effective destruction of their regiment - until 2808 when he was killed on Harrow's Sun.[1][3]

During the Second Succession War the company, under command of John McKinnon, fought mainly on the Capellan front. There they advanced deep into enemy territory and conducted famous raids on St. Ives and in 2861 on the Forbidden City on Sian itself. This last raid, though costly for McKinnon's Company, helped to convince Dainmar Liao to seek an end to the hostilities between the Houses Davion and Liao and earned the unit the name of McKinnon's Raiders.[1][4][5]

After a short time of R&R, where the unit had to exchange their last Star League equipment for lesser Davion-made equipment, McKinnon's Company spent the next century on the border to the Periphery, fighting against Pirates. This long-time service was rewarded with an assignment to House Davion's capital of New Avalon, sometime around the millennium. In 3013 the Davion intelligence service learned about a traitor, somewhere in the Davion Guards, who had been convinced by agents of House Kurita to kill the new First PrinceHanse Davion. The Raiders under the command of Ross McKinnon, being one of the few units on New Avalon which were not formally part of the Guards, were tasked with a secret mission to thwart the assassination. Faking their depature from the planet, they executed an orbital drop and destroyed the corrupted Captain Bright and his men, who were about to attack the Royal Court. As reward for their loyalty the Raiders earned themselves the nickname of "The Fox's Teeth".[6][4]

The next assignment for the Raiders, now again a part of the 7th Crucis Lancers, was to conduct operations along the border the Combine. They arrived in 3015 and for five years the company fought against the DCMS without a single defeat. The unit's luck run out however in 3020 on Harrow's Sun. Similar to the more famous battle on Galtor III five years later, a trap was planned on Harrow's Sun for the Combine invaders, but House Kurita invaded the planet with a much larger force than anticipated and overran the would-be ambush. Ross McKinnon payed with his life to allow the Davion forces time to escape into the mountains. It's during this time hidden in the mountains that Ross's son, Ian, took command of the Fox's Teeth and led the unit behind the enemy's lines. The Raiders would conduct a guerrilla war that lasted four weeks until AFFS troops arrived, forcing the Combine to withdraw from Harrow's Sun.

After this battle, the Raiders were allowed a brief time to rest, but they returned to the front in 3021. They would stay in the Draconis March for the remainder of the Third Succession War and beyond, where they acted as a mobile reserve force. They fought in countless battles against House Kurita, both as defenders on Davion worlds and aggressors deep behind enemy lines in keeping with their namesake. During this time, the Fox's Teeth clashed with the famous Wolf's Dragoons. The Dragoons, already at odds with their Kurita employers, began launching clandestine raids against Davion supply depots. This put them in the path of the Raiders in May of 3027 on the planet of Udibi. The battle would serve as further cause for Kurita to ultimately turn on the Wolf's Dragoons. Both sides put up a decent fight, but the Dragoons would return to the Kurita betrayals that ultimately end their DCMS contract and cause the Battle of Misery.[6][4][7]

Striking while half the Fox's Teeth were out on training maneuvers with the Drakøns, the Militia sent a small diversionary group against the remaining Fox's Teeth. The remaining bulk of their force moved towards the massive grain silos near the Davion unit's firebase in the Pozoristu Mountains. While the diversionary force was mauled by the Drakøns and Fox's Teeth command lance, led by Ian McKinnon, the rest of the Militia rolled over the troops at the Davion troop's base camp before being being forced to withdraw. But Mark McKinnon, Ian's brother, was killed holding off the attacking Ronin[9][10] and Ian had to take care of Mark's only child, David. [11]

After another short time of rebuilding at Kestrel in 3038, where McKinnon's command lance was refitted with experimental advanced technology, the Raiders traveled to Breed to join the 7th Crucis Lancers again, for the impending war with the Draconis Combine. The 7th Lancers first (and only) target was the capture of Klathandu IV together with the 2nd New Ivaarsen Chasseurs. The task force under command of MarshalWinston Vaskursian arrived at Klathandu in May of 3039 and secured the planet, which was only defended by planetary militia, after the planetary government's immediate surrender.[12][13][14]
But before the taskforce moved on to their next target of Proserpina, which was supposed to be attacked during the third wave of the invasion, Klathandu was counterattacked by the DCMS. A task force, consisting of the 3rd Benjamin Regulars, the 2nd Galedon Regulars and additional conventional regiments, landed successfully on the world in August. Although the Combine force, under command of Tai-saSamuel Nelson managed to achieve several victories in the beginning, Marshal Vaskursian, who used the Fox's Teeth to keep track of the enemy's movements, was able to regain the initiative. He let his troops retreat from their garrisons if faced by an attack and attacked by force himself when he managed to catch the enemy in the open. The two armies fought again and again until by the beginning of October, the DCMS taskforce was all but finished. In the midst of the final assault to crush the remaining Combine forces, Marshal Vaskursian received the order to retreat to the Federated Suns, as the war was over, and frustraded did so.[12][15][16]

The next major assignment for the Raiders was a raid on the Capellan world of Menke in 3045 to punish McCarron's Armored Cavalry for the destruction of the supposedly indestructible Fortress Bourgogne - which was newly rebuild and upgraded since the MAC's last attack during their Long March campaign in the last years of the Third Succession War - and the Marlette CMM on Marlette the year before. The mercenary's regiments were dispersed along the Federated Suns' border leaving only a battalion to garrison their headquarters, which was still not completely repaired since the last raid, conducted by the Illician Lancers and the Sirdar CMM as reprisal for the MAC's attack during the War of 3039.[17] The Teeth, who completely outclassed the defenders, destroyed Fort McCarron, a company of BattleMechs and all of the mercenary's supply and recreation facilities before they left the world long before Marcus Baxter arrived with two additional regiments.[18]

When the Clans attacked the Inner Sphere in March of 3050, the lack of a JumpShip forced McKinnon's company, together with the rest of the 7th Crucis Lancers, to stand by on their base on Winter as world after world fell to the invaders. Only when the chaos decreased in October, limited transport became available and the Fox's Teeth were sent to conduct raids into the occupied territory to gain more valuable information about the Clans. The Teeth executed two successful raids on the worlds of Hot Springs and Beta VII, where they were able to gather intelligence while avoiding the garrison forces of Clan Jade Falcon. A third mission to the planet Wotan did not flow so smoothly and the Raiders were confronted by a Trinary of the Eyrie Cluster. Though the elite Fox's Teeth were finally able to defeat the training unit, they lost several 'Mechs to the Clan unit's superior equipment. [22]

Back on Winter, Ian McKinnon decided to retire and to hand the unit over to his son. To ensure that Ross McKinnon became the Teeth's new CO, it is said that Ian called in a favor with Hanse Davion himself, who also arranged for the company to be equipped with the newest technology available.[22]

Reequipped and under a new commander the Fox's Teeth continued their raids on worlds occupied by the Clans in late 3051. Until the truce after the Battle of Tukayyid McKinnon's company stayed behind enemy lines and attempted to disrupt the supply lines of Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Steel Viper, gain further intelligence and support the resistance. Though they tried to evade the forces of the Clans, the Teeth fought them several times. The most famous engagement during this time was a battle with the Ninth Fang of Clan Steel Viper on Waldorff. With the help of their new equipment, including an attached unit of brand new Inner Sphere Standard Battle Armor, and their cunning tactics, the Raiders destroyed a whole Trinary during the attack on a supply depot.[23][24]

The Fox's Teeth had raided Towne in February, and returned with Group I as a part of Operation SCOUR;[26] it had been identified by the Fox's Teeth[27] that the Word of Blake had established a new facility deep within a mountain range on the continent of Howell that was capable of performing major DropShip refits and possibly the construction of new vessels. Group I attacked the facility, but the Blakists had established defenses around the facility that were almost comparable to a Star League-era Castle Brian. Not only were the defenses capable of repelling the allied coalition attacks, they created the very real possibility that the campaign to liberate Towne might fail completely; a daring strike by the Fox's Teeth was performed as the Fox-class FSS Indefatigable moved into orbit, with the Fox's Teeth targeting the capital missile launchers defending the facility to allow the Indefatigable to launch orbital strikes at the Blakists. While the Fox's Teeth attack was successful, the Indefatigable was almost lost when other capital missile launchers hidden within the local asteroid field were activated, flinging thousands of missiles at the WarShip, heavily damaging it.[26]

The Fox's Teeth would then suffer heavy damage in the Hean system on the 3rd of May 3077, when Group I fell afoul of a layered SDS network that destroyed the Indefatigable and inflicted heavy losses on the Fox's Teeth, the accompanying 15th Arcturan Guards and the AeroSpace forces available to Group I. As a result, Group I retreated from the Hean system.[28] The Fox's Teeth would soon be in action again, raiding the occupied world of Hamal, a raid that would cost the Teeth their commanding officer, Ross McKinnon.[27]

The good performance of the Raiders bought them a place in Operation Scythe, the Coalition's invasion of Terra itself in 3078.[30] As part of GeneralAndrew Redburn's taskforce, McKinnon's Company took part in the battle for Geneva and in the subsequent pursuit of the 4th Division across the Alps[31], culminating in the tough battle at the Krupp Armaments Works factories near Bratislava. In a typical move for the Teeth, they broke through a weak point in the Blakists' battleline, to bring the enemy into disorder, only to find themselves entrapped, when the 4th and 16th Divisions repelled Redburn's forces. When the troops of the Coalition, with great effort, finally succeeded to drive the remaining Blakists off and reached the factories, they were astonished to find David McKinnon's Company, which had been under constant assault for over a week and was badly mauled, holding the main facility and still alive.[32]